Monthly Archives: June 2016

Sharon Contreras, who is deaf, has been appointed as thenew superintendent of Guilford County (NC) SchoolDistrict. She is an experienced educator, havingserved in high administrative capacities with otherschool districts across USA. Her deafness? Yes, butshe functions as a hearing person and knows no ASL.Her picture is at:

People say that interpreters have safe, lifetime jobs becauseof high demand by the Deaf Community. Not always true!The state of Connecticut has laid off all 35 of itsinterpreters that worked for The Department ofRehabilitation Services. Why? Connecticut is broke.Instead, the state will use a private interpretingservice which charges at lower rates. DeafDigesthopes all of these laid off interpreters will findhigh paying interpreting jobs, with benefits,elsewhere. The state must realize cheap interpretersdo not always mean best interpreters. Anyway,the Deaf Community is very upset.

— arrested without knowing why

Daniel Downes, a deaf resident of Fairfax, New Zealand,was arrested by the police without knowing what washe doing wrong. Even worse, the police roughed himup and knocked him down to the sidewalk, breakinghis hearing aid. What was his crime? He was drinkingbeer in public in the early hours of the morning.Deaf Community leaders are upset and the police saidthey are investigating the incident – wanting toknow why a peaceful deaf man was roughed up overa minor offense.

We have another Deaf Case in Supreme Court –the deaf of Texas have accused state drivingschools of discrminating against them. Thethe federal appeals court ruled againstthe deaf, saying it was a matter of stateoverseeing the private schools licensingmatters and nothing to do with drivinginstructions (of the deaf). Looking back,we have won some cases and lost some cases.

— deaf in life-threatening jobs

Could the deaf work in life-threatening jobs?Fighting in battle zones in the military;fighting huge fires; serving as policeofficers, etc. Advocates say yes – the deafcan do it. There is a push to have the deafserve in the military. A deaf police officerin Alaska was shot to death. A militaryveteran wrote in a Frederick, MDnewspaper, worried that the deaf cannotrespond quickly to commands withoutdelay in battle zones! This is not tosay that the deaf can’t, because hearingdo get hurt and even get killed.

There was an incident involving a deaf passengeron the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authoritytrain platform. The cop, who confronted thedeaf passenger, was so angry about it that sheposted on her Facebook page, mocking hisdeafness. The angry officials immediatelyplaced her on paid annual leave. See thepicture at:

This is a true story. An oral deaf personthat knows no ASL and depends on lipreading,was in a traffic court, fighting a speedingticket. The judge knew that the person wasdeaf and offered him an interpreter. Herefused. Offered him CART, and he refused,and told the judge he can lipread. Thejudge gave up and asked him a question.Not understanding the question, theoral person said yes. The questionjudge asked was:

Are you pleading guilty?

Everyone in the court room laughed,even the judge. Fortunately forthe deaf person, the judge, knowinghe didn’t understand the question,changed it from guilty to not guilty!

— hearing person has reason to love captions

A hearing person has a big reason forcaptions. He loves to watch iPadshows while in bed with his wife.He turns on captions because he didnot want to wake up his wife whois sleeping! This is another exampleof a Deaf Device that helps thehearing.

In Michigan, there is a new communications card that tells the copshow to communicate with the deaf. The card has two sides –one side tells the cops the person is deaf and has icons(Interpreter, Texting, No lip-read, etc) that the deafperson can point to. The other side has icons for thecops to point to (license, insurance card, registrationcard, etc). Is it perfect? Hope so because differentagencies agreed with the design. A picture is at:

The 2nd Annual California Hot Sauce Expo 2016 ended lastweek. One of the competing hot sauce makers is Rasool,who is deaf. High River Sauces, the host of this expo,received over 100 entries, some from Panama, Australia,New Zealand and Mexico. Not every one can enter thecompetition, as the cut-off number of entries is 36.It shows how serious the hot sauce competition is,hence a great honor for a deaf competitor to be entered.

— not enough

A deaf person was arrested in Minnesota. He asked foran interpreter; the cops refused to get him aninterpreter, but communicated with him throughnotepad and pen. The judge said notepad and penis not enough, and that he must be given aninterpreter, and awarded him $30,000. This$30,000 is really a joke because half of itgoes to his attorney!

EVERYTHING AGAINST THE ASL DEAF?
Is everything against the ASL deaf? We
are talking about CI people, oral people,
Cued Speech people, Signing Essential
English people, lip-reading people, etc?
What does this say? That non-ASL
deaf people have their own serious problems
and try to attack the ASL deaf!

DEAF HOUSE IS IMPORTANT
For the deaf parents, a Deaf House is very
important.
They can see what their children are doing
(jumping, running around, banging on tables,
fighting with each other, etc).
Hearing parents can hear. Deaf parents
can’t hear. This is the reason for the
Deaf House!

ASL IN DEAF SCHOOL AND ASL IN MAINSTREAMED SCHOOLS
Is ASL used by the deaf at deaf schools better
than ASL used by the deaf at mainstreamed programs?
Many deaf people would say yes, deaf school ASL
is better.
Not always true. There are many deaf school
students that don’t sign well and there are also
mainstreamed students that sign ASL beautifully!
Do not always assume one ASL is better than other.

Bears are everywhere, and not just always in thewoods. One such bear strayed on the campus ofthe Kentucky School for the Deaf. Danville peoplewere alarmed. Fortunately, the bear went backto the woods. The state Department of Fish and Wildlifesaid the bear was just looking for “free food” andfinding none, went back “home”! A picture is at:

The Brits voted for Brexit. What is the DeafBritish Brexit Fear? That the new EuropeanAccessibility Act will not apply to them.This act promises full sign language rightsfor the European deaf. What will theBritish government do with it? Willthe government ignore it or support it?We will not know for the next 2-3 yearsuntil the British government makes up itsmind!

— Bad, bad Chicago law

Chicago had a law that banned disabled peoplefrom walking on the city streets. Thislaw also included the deaf. A joke? No,in 1881, alderman James Peevey proposedthis law and it passed. For 93 years thislaw continued on the books – until itwas repealed in 1974! Did the copsreally enforce the law to block thedeaf from using the sidewalks? No.At least one less law insulting thedeaf has been removed.